About

My first book of poems, In Transit, formed a third of New Poets 1959, edited by Edwin Muir and published in 1959 by Eyre & Spottiswoode, London. In 1960, on the basis of this and additional poems, I became the first recipient of  the Eric Gregory Award, the  judges for which were T.S. Eliot, Henry Moore, and Bonamy Dobrée.

Since living in Canada, I have published a further thirteen books of my own poetry.
I have also published  two poetry chapbooks, and have edited three poetry anthologies, A selection of my poems appeared in French translation in Belvedere (Ottawa, 2002) while other poems have appeared in Dutch translation in the Netherlands, two of them subsequently forming part of the Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga’s Requiem 53, commissioned to commemorate victims of the 1953 Dutch floods and first performed in Middelburg, Zeeland in February 2003. Vox Humana, a selection of my poems on Dutch themes was translated by Ad Zuiderent and published in 2019 by Uitgeverij Muller

Individual poems of mine have appeared in several anthologies in Canada and the UK and in such Canadian and international periodicals as Antigonish Review, Arc, Ariel, Border Crossings, CV 11, Canadian Literature, Canadian Forum, Dalhousie Review, Dandelion, Descant, Encounter, Event, Fiddlehead, Grain, London Magazine, Malahat Review, Matrix, Meanjin, The New Quarterly, New Statesman and Nation, NeWest Review, PN Review, Poetry Canada Review, Prism International, Queen’s Quarterly, Quarry, Saturday Night, The Spectator, Tickle Ace, and the Times Literary Supplement.

I have reviewed poetry and fiction for the following periodicals: Arc, BC Review, Books in Canada, Canadian Forum, Canadian Literature, Critical Quarterly, CVII, Event, The Journal of Canadian Poetry, Malahat Review, Matrix, Outlook,  Quarry, Queen’s Quarterly, Saturday Night, Times Literary Supplement, Toronto South Asian Review , the Vancouver Sun, World  Literature Today and the on-line former Ormsby Review (now British Columbia Review) and have published long articles in the Gale Research Series Dictionary of Literary Biography, vols 27 and 40, on the British poets, Philip Hobsbaum, Norman MacCaig and Anthony Thwaite. Two of my reviews, of work by Patrick Lane and George Faludy, were excerpted in the Gale Research Series  Contemporary Literary Criticism, vols. 25 and 42. Another review, of Don McKay’s Night Field, was included in Brian Bartlett’s 2006 collection of criticism of his works. 

I have read from my own work in Canada, the USA, Mexico, England, Ireland, India, Australia, New Zealand and  Russia. and  have published two volumes of my translations from seventeenth century Dutch poetry, Seeking Heart’s Solace (Toronto, 1981) and Light of the World  (Windsor, Ont., 1982) while my individual verse translations from contemporary Dutch and German poets  have appeared in e.g. Agenda (UK), Arts in Society (USA), Contemporary Literature in Translation(UK) , Delta (Netherlands),  Delos (USA) Dimension  (USA), The Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies, Modern Poetry in Translation (UK), and the anthology  East German Poetry (ed. Michael Hamburger)  I have also reviewed works of Dutch  and German poetry and fiction for  Books Abroad, Delos, and The Times Literary Supplement .

I co-founded in 1978 and for ten years  (1978-1988) was Editor in chief of Arc magazine. I also founded and organized from 1982 to 1992  the Arc Reading Series (for poetry and fiction) in downtown Ottawa. For a year I was Poetry Editor of the Literary Review of Canada, and for five years, 1994-1999, was co-founder and  Series Editor of the Harbinger Poetry Series, an imprint of the Carleton University Press devoted exclusively  to publishing first books of poetry, including those of David O’Meara and  Ronna Bloom .

On twenty five occasions I taught a full year credit Poetry Workshop course at  Carleton University and after the first year started the informal monthly workshops of the Ottawa Poetry Group.  I was for many years a member of the League of Canadian Poets, where I served on the International Affairs  and Membership Committees  and I am now a member of the Writers Union of Canada.

Since moving to Vancouver in 2007 I have on six occasions taught six week courses for Seniors at SFU and Capilano University and as a result of the first of these, on South Asian Literature in  English, founded SALinE, a monthly book club devoted exclusively to reading  South Asian and diaspora writers who write in English. With local poet Rob Taylor, I helped to revive and run the Dead Poets Reading Series at the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library,and served for three years as poetry representative on the board of the BC Book Awards. I have also served on the jury for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award and for the TWUC Freedom to Read award.